Jack-in-the-pulpit

Jack-in-the-pulpit, any of several plants of the arum family (genus Ari-saema) that flower in spring before the leaves appear. The flower is really an elaborate, colored tubular structure called a spathe. It surrounds a stem, the spadix, on which many small flowers grow. The flowers are fertilized by flies, and by autumn the spathe falls away to reveal a cluster of bright red berries which are poisonous when eaten raw.